About quiltodontist

I am a "quiltodontist". I love to quilt when I find the time, but more often I am helping out with my husband's orthodontic practice, supporting my daughter's growing jewelry business, and enjoying my son's baby girl, my first grandchild! This blog was started by my daughter to give me a place to talk about my passions and show a photo or two of the things that make me tick.
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I’ve been watching a pair of robins build their nest in the forsythia (fake) wreath on my front door. They did a great job with twigs, grass and mud, but it was a little too heavy and slid to the side of the wreath holder. Oops, the eggs fell out. They built a second nest above the first and the same thing happened, slid to the side and oops, another clutch of eggs hit the floor of the porch. I felt bad for them and this morning, I noticed a pair of robins building in a tree close to the house. I hope that it’s the pair from the porch who made the necessary adjustments to their housing arrangements.

Yesterday was a perfectly beautiful day! I spent several hours hauling year old mulch around my yard, whacking weeds with my scuffle hoe and admiring my handiwork. Today is another story. Cold. Wet. Gray (or is that grey?). So I’m heading to my studio to make some yard flags to cheer me up. I’ll show you a picture when they’re done.

Got a few cut out, stitched up, the day improved and the sun is out!!! Even took a picture, (and video, but that might be more than I can handle getting on here).

We have a little place in Arizona where we can retreat when Central New York winters become too long and gray. I spent 2 weeks there by myself in February and when I left, the agave in the front yard was its usual pointy sharp self. Michael and I came out in March and lo and behold, it had sprouted a 6 – 8 foot shoot. This is the beginning of the end for the century plant which only lives for 25 to 30 year

You almost can’t see me.

New growth

anyway. The name century plant is overly optimistic. A return visit in May was surprising, it was close to 30 feet tall. We admired it for a week and then started to wonder what would happen when it fell over. The leaves were starting to wither and brown, but this is the desert. We asked the gardener who was working on the common areas around our house to take a look. He said, “That is very dangerous.” One chainsaw later and goodbye stalk! It was very heavy, probably several hundred pounds, so it was a good thing we whacked it before it whacked us or the car. Now, it is just ugly.

I’ve been thinking about time lately. I complain about my lack of it, how quickly it goes, how I’m spending it, how we waste it. Before I went to the Uplevel Your Business Gold Retreat in Asheville, I had committed to writing another blog post and I did try to do it the night before the event started, in my hotel room. I couldn’t remember how to do it because I had not spent enough time practicing and couldn’t figure out the link. So I think the point of this post is that I am making a new commitment to really pay attention to time and use it in the way that best feeds my soul.

(The photo is a beautiful sunset over Lake Champlain gleefully lifted from either my daughter, the lovely erin meharg Harris or Jen Kahn Rich, I don’t remember which. Next time, we’ll see if I can figure out links.)

Want to know the best form of procrastination? Make a big move of your workspace and shop. Spend several weeks moving and sorting through all your shit, then go on vacation for two weeks. Return, get the space set up perfectly. Then paint. Move all your furniture to one side. Paint that side. Move everything to the other side. Paint the other side. (It makes much more sense to paint now then when the space was totally empty, trust me). Then, make a move into a new space. Do this all in a 4 month period for maximum un-productivity…

I’ve felt stagnant the last few months. I was very excited to move into my new space in downtown Syracuse. After getting it all set up, I just didn’t feel inspired. The building I’m in is great: There are a ton of other artists, everyone is so encouraging and creative, I…

We have been giving out wonderful bent pens for years at Franklin Square Orthodontics, aka FSO and I always do my spiel where I say, “it’s a bent pen, but we could straighten it out, we’re an orthodontic practice.” Several of our patients mentioned that we should give out straight ones at the end and I did eventually remember to order some. So I had to smile when I noticed that I had 2 pens on the kitchen counter, one straight and one bent. I find the bent one much more interesting as a conversation starter!